748 From Operator to CEO: The Identity Shift Required for Expansion

Welcome to the Next Level Life Podcast with Christine Corcoran. This podcast is made for the powerhouse business women who are ready to ignite their fullest potential. This is where we will dive deep into the mindset breakthroughs and sprinkle in some kick up the butt motivation so you can scale your business with confidence and clarity. Whether you're craving more income, impact, or inspiration, this podcast will be your ultimate resource for all things next level. Listen in as we have authentic conversations with game-changing female entrepreneurs as we reveal the secrets on what it takes to rise and thrive. So go ahead, ignite your inner fire, and let's get you taking massive aligned action. Are you ready to elevate? Let's go. Welcome back to the podcast. Today I wanna chat to you about really stepping into that next level as your CEO identity. I recently did a series of reels on Instagram, which were about you are not in your, you are not in year one anymore. And if you listen to the 5 Minutes of Momentum from last week, it was in that theme. But I did one for like the first 5 years of your business. Because I think sometimes it's really hard to know where you're still playing small and where you could be stepping into your CEO shoes. And if we don't have representation of next level of success in business, if we don't— because this is the thing, like, a lot of business owners aren't showing us the behind the scenes. We're not seeing how they're leading, how they're making decisions, how they're changing the way that their strategies, how they're changing the way that they're marketing certain things, how the certain strategies they're putting in place for all these different parts of their business. And so when we're doing our own thing and we're in our own world and our, in our silo, it can be really challenging to be like, yeah, well, maybe I need to be doing something different, but I'm not even sure what that even looks like. And so having these types of conversations really help to support you in envisioning who you need to be at your next level. And it starts with really defining your next level, because if you don't define your next level, you will keep creating the same results you've always achieved. Right? And the thing is, you're so comfortable in that space. And so subconsciously, your brain is not there to support growth. It's actually there to keep you safe and keep you playing at the same space where you know you can have certainty as much as possible. So the way that your brain determines safety is through a sense of certainty. And so if you've done certain things before, your brain's like, well, I know what happens from— what the outcome is from that behavior or that action, and then it feels safe. Whereas when you're stepping out to do something you've never done before and you're stepping into the unknown, your brain's like, ring major alarm bells, basically saying, that's dangerous, don't do that. And so we then go back into our comfort zone where we feel most confident. And yet, if you do want to scale, you want to step into this next phase, the more clarity you can bring to that next level of what that will look like, feel like, sound like, experience— what that experience will be like for you— the less likely it is that you'll run away from it and more likely it is you'll move towards it. So more clarity and more definition will really help you step into that. And this has come off so many conversations I've had recently with clients through my Mastermind clients, especially in the Next Level Mastermind. We're really working on how they're stepping into this next level version of themselves and really paying attention to where they're self-sabotaging. And it shows up in so many different ways, from hiding from visibility, hiding from opportunities, playing small with even pricing, right? Like I had this recent conversation with a client where I was challenging the pricing structure that she's putting on there. And the way that she described her choice around the pricing was like, it's something new that I'm creating. And it was a new offering, right? And I said to her, but yeah, you are not new at business though. Like your advice won't be new. Like your— it doesn't take away from your level of experience and your education and the qualifications you bring to your business and all that level of support that people are getting access to. That's not going away. That's not new. And so when I challenged her on it, she was like, yeah, actually you're right. And we fall back into these places where it feels safe. And we don't keep leveling up, right? Unless we choose to define that next level and who we are being, that identity that we are stepping into. So I wanna talk about it today in multiple different ways because I feel like the more clarity we bring to it, the easier it is for you to start to decide to really step into be the CEO of your business. So let's start there. Like, what's the difference between being the operator, stepping into your CEO shoes? So the way that I define the CEO is the person that you are being and the way that you're showing up, the way that you're making decisions, the way that the actions that you're taking and how you are doing your everyday in your business. An operator is someone that is still doing a lot of the client work. Now, I don't mean that you need to stop doing client work in order to be the CEO. No, that's not what I mean. You need to be setting aside time where you are the CEO and you're making decisions, you're visioning your future, you're making plans, you're building strategies, you're working on the growth-focused activities in your business in order for you to level up, right? There is always, depending on the type of service business that you have, there is always going to be operational work where you're working on client work and you're working on serving, right? Which is fine, totally great. And that's where your zone of genius is, and that's why you love what you do, and that's why you're doing what you're doing, right? So that's totally fine. That's not what I mean. You're not stopping doing client work. I mean is that where you're doing the operational work, as in you're trying to keep things maintained within the business and you're not stepping out of that comfort of just doing the same thing month in, month out, and you're starting to really think about what needs to move the business forward. And so you're dedicating CEO thinking time and you're allocating time where you're actioning and executing on a next level strategy that will support your next level. And along with that comes the mindset work where you sit with yourself and you define your thoughts. You look at your thought processes and be like, okay, where am I making this decision from? Am I making this decision from myself from 2 years ago? Am I making this decision from fear or from a place of insecurity? Or am I making it from my future self of where I wanna be versus where I am now? And this is what separates the operators from the CEOs. The CEOs are very future-focused, right? The operator is someone that's still focused short-term in their business. They're still thinking about what's happening this month versus what's gotta happen next month, in 6 months' time, in 12 months' time, right? As well as the activities of where you're spending your time and whether it should be something that you should be spending your time on. So it's so incredibly important that you define at your next level, what are some of the things that you should be doing in your role? What is your responsibility? As the business owner, as the CEO, as you level up, right? So if you think about yourself in 1 year's time, even if you just start there, I know sometimes 2 years and 5 years can be really hard to think of, but even just 1 year's time and go, okay, where I wanna be in 1 year's time, what are the activities I would be doing on a daily basis to support the growth of my business? Who else will I have as part of my support team? And what are the role that they will be playing? What will they be doing? And then we need to start living into that existence because if nothing changes, nothing changes. Right? And so as much as the first thought I know is probably gonna come to your mind is like, yeah, but I don't have the money to invest in team yet, or I don't have the money to invest in those types of activities. That's okay. It can work like a sliding scale, but we've gotta start somewhere because I guarantee you, you are spending time doing things within your business that you should not be spending your time on, or you're using that as a crutch. You're using it to avoid the scarier things. Because as you step into your CEO shoes, that's when the rubber hits the road. That's where it's causing you to step up, right? That you're going to have to prioritize your visibility. You're gonna have to prioritize putting yourself forward for opportunities. You're gonna have to prioritize the scary things in your business that you know you've been avoiding. You need to look at your numbers. You need to be analyzing what's happening within your business. You need to be improving funnels. Like there's certain things that you need to be doing depending on your business. And we're gonna break it down in a second, but like there are certain things that you know you need to be spending time on, but you're getting caught up in the busyness of your business and you're stepping back into your operator shoes and doing all the things that you know that needs to happen, obviously to maintain, but that's also keeping you stuck. I recently hired a new team member and I actually hired them for a lot more than I require right now. So if I looked at, okay, what do I need to take off my plate? I looked at all these things and I thought, okay, this is how much, how much time I'm going to need this support person to be able to help me. And then I hired them for double it. And that was scary. I didn't feel ready. I was like, I'm not really sure I'm gonna find the money, but I know that if I don't do something like this, I'm gonna keep being stuck in the cycle of maintaining instead of growing and expanding. And they've only been with me for 2 weeks, but honestly, it's— there's been such a spotlight on really where I've been keeping myself stuck. And for me to scale to my next level, I've gotta be focusing on the more important things in my business instead of instead of all the things that just keep things running, right? And so having her on my, on my, so having her on my team has allowed me to really actually take so much more off my plate. It's caused me to get much more prepped and much more productive and getting stuff to her so she can spend the time and that she can do her job well, right? And so I onboarded her really well and she's been going through all the things. It's been so good. And now I'm actually getting to stuff on my to-do list that's been on my to-do list for over 6 to 8 months. Right? Crazy, right? 6 to 8 months. But this is the thing, like sometimes you don't feel ready for that. I did not feel ready for hiring her at that level. And it's really helped me change the way that I'm also thinking about my next hire, which I'm so excited for. I'm not ready for it yet. The business isn't ready for it yet, but I know what it's going to be. And I'm also going to do the exact same thing. I'm going to hire for double the amount of time that I actually think I need in order for me to create space for me to step into this next level version of myself and for my business to have that expansion, right? Because the thing is, what gets left behind is usually the most important things in your business, right? Because you know, you need to serve your clients first and foremost, right? Most important piece. Secondly, you need to keep the business running. Like, we know this, and yet it's something that can often keep us stuck in the operation shoes because it can take a lot to keep it running. So if you think about what you've built into your business as everyday, weekly, monthly tasks. And if you are still doing a lot of those things, and that's obviously what's keeping you then stuck doing those things. Whereas again, like a reminder, stepping into your CEO shoes is doing the next level things, right? It's challenging the way that you're thinking about things. It's causing you to step up. And so if we're doing like the everyday things all the time, we never have time for the growth-focused activities. You never have time to create that new funnel. You never have time to get in front of new audiences. You never have time to put yourself forward for opportunities that maybe you didn't even know they're out there because you're so busy doing the busy stuff, right? So the identity shift that needs to happen is firstly how you see yourself within the business. So it can be what you believe is possible for yourself. It could be, like I was saying before, like envisioning that 1 year's time and your business has already expanded. So if you think about, like, just from where you are right now, if you doubled your business right now, okay, so doubling what you're doing right now, do you currently have the systems in place to support that? Do you have the team in place to support that? Who would you need to be as the leader to support that? If you break it down into just those 3 things, you will absolutely see what could be possible. And then you need to identify who would you need to be to hold that? Once we get clear on that, then you can start to really identify, okay, what do I need to prioritize to make that happen? What do I need to prioritize? Because what you're prioritizing right now is most likely the operator shoes, right? You're prioritizing the everyday busy work that just keeps you stuck, whereas really what needs to happen is focusing on growth, expansion, and really stepping into this next level version. So what does that look like? What's the identity shift? Sometimes when I ask this question of clients, we go, okay, that next level, what would you be focusing your attention on? And it could be marketing, it could be creating content, right, consistently, and building out that authority and stepping in as that authority person in your industry, that go-to person in your industry, and you're really stepping up and owning that space. Secondly, it could be really prioritizing more visibility activities, right? So putting yourself out there, like it could be getting on more podcasts. Because if you think about, if you are the face of the business, if, if people buy into you, let's say like, because I'm a coach, obviously people are going to buy into me. The more I am visible, the more I am getting in front of more people and expanding my audiences and getting that visibility, the more options, the more leads that I create in my business, right? The more visibility I get, the more leads come in, and then everything else within the business is much easier. So I know that I need to build trust. Like, that's my plan. That's my goal in the business. I am the trust builder, right? So I need to be visible. I need to be creating marketing on a regular basis. And usually that's the first thing that goes when we're busy, isn't it? Right? Like, it's usually the first thing that goes. Okay. Secondly, we need to look at how you're making data-driven actions and decisions, because usually that's the third— the second thing that goes is literally like, well, I don't have time to look at the data. You just going keep going to the next thing, the next thing, the next thing, instead of actually reflecting and going, hey, what actually worked? What didn't work? What should I be focusing my attention on? The third is how you're leading, right? So leading in your business. So it could be leading yourself. So if you think about that, you know, 2-year, 1-year vision where you have doubled your business, how would you be leading yourself? What would you be expecting of yourself? What would you be believing about yourself? How would you be showing up? right? Then also, how would you be leading others? So if you've got a team, how would you be leading others? What would you be doing differently? And that will also start to shift and change things, right? Because you start to see things so differently because you'll be like, oh, I keep so— get so bogged down in this area of my business when really that's not my zone of genius. I need to be hiring here. Like, I did this with a client recently. We were figuring out what her next hire was, and she was like, oh, this takes me so much time, this takes me so much time. And I was like, yeah, okay, that's time, but what would actually make you money? Like what would bring more money into the business in order for you to be able to expand? 'Cause we know that she gets so bogged down in the funnels and so bogged down in all the stuff that has to happen behind the scenes. So she's like building out landing pages and email sequences and doing all this follow-up. Like there's all this stuff that's actually happening that she should not be doing. And she can't see the wood for the trees. So when you're in it, it's really hard to see. And so I said to her like, okay, make a list of the things that you would outsource if you possibly could outsource them. And we looked at it and we were like, okay, so all of this is gonna give you back time, but if you don't have the income yet to bring it to actually cover the cost of a team member, then we've got to go make the income. So then that feels like we fall back into the same activities. Right. And so I said to her, okay, well, what would actually generate revenue? And so we decided that she's actually going to go and hire a Facebook ads person to get one of her funnels pumping. So that way she can put more money towards that Facebook ads person and another support team member. So we often think like, oh, first hire is to gain more time back, but sometimes it's actually to make more money. And so you want to be conscious of that, especially if you're hiring VAs, because if you are hiring a VA but you haven't considered the task that you're getting that person to do, is it actually supporting revenue-generating activities? Because it could just be saving you time, but what you replace that activity with— so what I mean by that is if you're outsourcing it, you're giving it to somebody else, and then that means it's freeing up your time. What are you doing with that time? Because if you're not doing revenue-generating activities in that time, then it's probably going to feel like it's costing you a lot of money to have a team member, and it's not generating the results you're hoping for, right? So you've really got to consider that when you're hiring. Okay, so that identity shift, right? Again, coming back to that 1-year vision, that person who's doubled their business, what would they be spending their time on? How would they be thinking about it? How would they be leading? How would they be showing up? It helps you really think about, okay, how could I do differently here? Now, one gap here that I see for some business owners, and this is obviously why you hire a coach, is often we don't see— we don't know what we don't know. So we can be in our business all day, every day, and trying to do things differently. But if we don't have a representation of what we should be spending our time on, then we can obviously just stay stuck in the same place, right? So, and this is a hard thing with— we don't get to see behind the scenes of everyday business. And this is where podcasts I find are really, really helpful. So usually if I'm wanting to upskill or expand in a certain area of my business— so at the moment leadership is really one that's highlighting for me— and so I've been listening to a lot of Leila Hamouzi because she talks a lot on leadership. She's writing a book on leadership at the moment. And so having those conversations, I get insights into the way that she's managing her day. So I listened to one yesterday and she was breaking down how she runs her day, and I was like, oh, that's so awesome. Like, it just made me really think about things really differently. And so it's the same thing for you. So if you look at different areas of your business, because you've got to break it down, it can't be just like, oh, I'm going to go listen to a podcast from a business owner that might talk about expansion, right? I like to go a little bit more niche. So break it down into different areas. What do I need to be focused on? Do I need to be looking at Facebook ads? Do I need to be looking at AI? Do I need to be looking at hiring team? Do I need to be looking at leadership? Do I need to be looking at analyzing my data? Do I need to be looking at making better decisions? Do I need to be looking at that next level offer. So if I think about what I've got in my current offer strategy, is it the offers that actually aren't expanding? Do I need to look at what else is actually on the market and how can I learn from those people that actually have what I want? Right? So I always look further ahead and go, who are the people that have what I want and what can I learn from them? Because there's usually so much free content out there that you can learn from, or you may need to hire that coach to get that support. Right? So it reminds me as well of another client that I'm working with at the moment. We needed to look down the profitability of her offers. And we broke down every single client she's working with, how much she's generating with those clients. We scored those clients to determine like A-grade clients, the clients that she really loves working with versus clients that she really just doesn't love the task that she's doing, or she doesn't love, doesn't feel like there's a values alignment. Um, and we then looked at, okay, what are the current offers we have in place? Is that serving the growth of your business? And so we actually broke down her offering into 3 different phases. And how she would onboard clients and what she would then guide them to the next. And so by doing that, she's never had that before. Like no one's ever said that to her. And so that's a really good idea to be like, okay, how do we break it down to support the growth of the business? And we were reverse engineering it, right? So I was asking her like, where do you wanna be in 2 years' time? How much time do you wanna be spending in your business? How much of that is you? How much of that is outsourced? How much of that is team members? Like what do you want your business to be long term? And often Majority of women don't even have that vision. They don't know what they want, or they're not sure with what they want is possible, or they're not sure how that would work at that next level, right? They're like, I'm just doing what I'm doing in my own little world, and I'm not sure where that could take me or what that could look like. And so the more you put yourself in positions where you learn from other people, you will actually get to see like there's so many other ways to do business, and there's so much that you could learn from them to be like, okay, this is possible. And so I would love for you to start thinking about that next level and identifying and defining what you truly want. And don't edit yourself. Like I said to my client recently this week, I don't want you to edit what you want because you may think it's not possible or that's not available to you. So what I mean by that is that if you're not sure it's possible, then you will absolutely just cut yourself off to it. Like if you don't even say it out loud, right? It might be like you only wanna work 3 days a week. You wanna have this many team members. You want to be able to have this much income. Like, if you haven't even defined those 3 things, then that can absolutely be limiting you. Because if we don't even declare what we want, there's no way of us possibly finding that solution. So I remember reading like The 4-Hour Workweek, right? Do you remember that book that came out with by Tim Ferriss? It was massive when it came out and people still talk about it. And, you know, he completely automated himself out of his life, like really. And when I read that, I was like, yeah, I love the idea, but I was like, I actually want more contact with people. And so I needed to like go, what do I want? If I defined, because I love my work, I wanna be able to work and I have purpose with my work. I do wanna work. It's like really getting as clear as you possibly can and then going finding representation of that will give you such confidence and belief that it's absolutely possible. So when I break down this with my client this week and said to her like, this is what could be possible. And she was like, oh my God, I hadn't thought of it like that. And so having those coaching conversations really do take things to the next level because it makes what's possible available to you. Okay. That then brings me to this next level identity shift around control. Because as we are stepping into scaling or we're stepping into our CEO shoes, one of the biggest forms of resistance we can often have, because we've built the business, it's been our baby, and we've had so much control over it for a really long time, usually there's a hesitation to release that control. So what do we need to be considering when it comes to relinquishing some control? First identity shift is that you are not great at everything. Like, I'm gonna say it, there is parts of your business that you suck at, and that's okay. You are not expected to be the be-all and end-all of absolutely everything, right? You're wearing all of the hats, and that's actually what's also causing the business to slow its growth. So just having that clarity around, like, okay, I know I'm not great at everything. What am I not great at? What should I not be spending my time on. Secondly, it's recognizing that you still get to be in control, but you may need to improve your leadership skills and you may need to improve your systems and processes in order to support that control, right? You still get to make the decisions in your business, right? But usually we get so caught up of like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna lose control. Well, only way that you would lose control is that you stop overseeing what's happening. So you need to ensure that you have systems and processes in place and you communicate those overseeing processes, right? So for my new team member, she's working on certain things, but I don't— I'm not letting her post it on my socials, or I'm not letting her email my people. I'm not letting her doing those client-facing things until I am absolutely sure that she understands my business as a whole and she will communicate like I communicate. So at this point in time, she's sharing everything with me first. I'm giving her feedback. I'm making changes before I then put it out. Okay. So I want you to consider there's absolutely things that you could be doing. And I was talking to another client about this as well, around, you know, if you're feeling uneasy about what that client, that person's capability is about, um, whether they're good at something like have those conversations, be willing to have those uncomfortable conversations to get on the same page and learn to be able to give effective feedback that is productive and it is factual rather than emotional. Learn to actually ask the right questions to get the best out of people. Right. And so when we start to explore that type of leadership, then control is less needed, right? Because you've got trust, which then brings me to one of the next hesitations is the trust factor. Trust is built, right? Often what people think is I'm bringing in a team member and I automatically have to trust them with everything. No, that's actually the worst thing you could do. I would suggest that you build in touchpoints and you build in performance management meetings. Is a, you know, the official term to call it, but I would just call meetings where you're having those touch points to, to open the communication channels. So then you know how to, you know, give good feedback, welcome them for their feedback, ask them to be involved in that, uh, supporting them with the right tools, the right education, the right information in order for them to be able to do a great job. Yeah. Let them build trust with you. So like I said, trust is built. It's not something that's given. So over time, it's going to have to mean that she's going to have to show you, or that person's going to have to show you what they're capable of in order for you to be able to have trust, right? So acknowledge that, that that's going to take time. It's not something that's just automatically given. So learn to build that trust, because in— for you to be able to step back and be the CEO of your business and be able to have team, it's so incredibly important that you build trust with others. And sometimes we have some trauma around that, or we could have some wounds around trust in the past. If we've been betrayed in the past, if something negative has happened with our relationships, friendships, other business relationships— like, if something is bad has happened in the past, then often trust has been eroded, and then we find it very hard to trust more people in the future. So it's incredibly important that you do the work on yourself in order to heal those wounds, to support you to be able to trust again. Because you cannot keep doing it all on your own, and you shouldn't. You shouldn't want to even do it all on your own. It's so much more enjoyable when you have other others with you and you're sharing the burden with others as well, right? That's also, I guess, the benefit of working with a coach, of like, that burden is shared because we're getting to work on it together. So if you have that emotional resistance around trusting others, then I would absolutely think about like working through those wounds to support yourself to be able to trust again. There's 3 areas you need to really develop in this phase. One, it's trust in others. Two, it's trust in yourself that you'll have the ability to lead, oversee, support the next step, and step into your next level vision. And then the third one is trust in a higher level. So what I mean by that is whether that's the universe, whoever, whatever you believe in, that we're here, we're being supported, whether it's God, whether it— whatever it is, like, it doesn't matter, that we are always being guided. And so when we have that level of trust in the universe, that everything is being provided for us, that we're being supported no matter what, that everything is working out for us, we're less likely to make it so heavy and stressful on our own shoulders because we're making meaning out of situations that is causing the stress and overwhelm, right? And it can be scary to step forward and do things differently, but when we have that level of trust— and trust in yourself, trust in others, and trust in the universe— it is so much easier. Okay, and the last little thing I would love for you to start to think about when, as you're stepping into your next level CEO identity, is the decision-making lens of true expansion. So what I mean by this is how you make decisions is everything in your business. If you make decisions from a place of, is this— what's this going to cost me? You will often be so focused on the cost versus the investment, right? So looking at investing in yourself, looking at investing your energy in places, looking at investing in others, like, it's so incredibly important that you see that as a return. Right? That there will be a return on investment, that it is worthwhile you stepping into this. Because where we spend our money is so incredibly important, and even where we spend our energy is also incredibly important. So I'm taking action on things that I believe in, that I am following through on, because I'm like, I'm giving it my energy, I'm believing in the investment in this, right? I know I'm going to get a better outcome if I'm coming to it from that place. And the other key piece is making decisions from the future of where you want to be versus where you are right now. Majority of the time where we get stuck repeating the same results is because you're making the same decisions over and over and over again, and it's keeping you in the same place. So asking yourself, I do this on a regular basis, what would my future self do here? It causes me to step up and level up and take scary freaking action. So even if it's one thing you take away from today's podcast episode is start making decisions from your future self, that, that person in 1 year or 2 years' time that has doubled their business, Start making decisions from their mindset and you will absolutely start stepping up in every area of your business. All right. I hope you've loved this episode. There is so much more to come for you. I've got so many incredible new resources coming. I'm also opening up spots for the Next Level Mastermind. So if you would love to join me in the next round of the Next Level Mastermind, you can check out the link in the show notes, add your name to the waitlist, and I will be in touch to talk about the options that you have to be a part of this incredible community. All right. Lovely. Enjoy the rest of your week and I'll see you soon. Thank you for listening. And if you found any value out of this episode, make sure you hit the follow button so you get access to the episodes as soon as they are live. And make sure you come hang out with me on Instagram. You can find me at Christine Corcoran underscore coach. Have an incredible week.